Voting In Australia’s National Referendum On Marriage Equality Will Be Mandatory

The Australian government has reportedly decided to hold a compulsory national vote on the issue of marriage equality sometime this February. Yes, marriage equality will be determined by plebiscite.

According to reports, the wording of the question will simply be “Do you approve of a law to permit people of the same sex to marry?”

Support for marriage equality has increased since the federal election with the latest Essential poll showing strong national support at 62 percent, up four percentage points since July. But nearly two-thirds of Australians do not want the federal government to provide funding for the “yes” and “no” campaigns in the lead-up to a same-sex marriage plebiscite, if one is held.

A recent survey of 5,463 Australian LGBT voters conducted by just.equal, an Australian LGBT-rights community campaign, showed that 85 percent of respondents opposed a national vote on marriage equality. The most commonly expressed reasons for the opposition included anxiety caused by potential hate campaigns from the religious right and a strong belief that the rights of minority groups should not be put to a country-wide vote.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, Victoria’s Premier Daniel Andrews wrote:

“The plebiscite will hurt people. It will legitimize a hateful debate which will subject LGBTI Australians to publicly funded slurs and denigration, further alienating a proud community who have fought so hard against prejudice for so long.”

The Coalition, the current majority party in Parliament, supports the plebiscite, while the Labor party opposes it. The Labor party has called the measure “expensive, divisive and unnecessary” as marriage equality now has enough parliamentary support to pass without the need of a national referendum.

Regardless of this rise, Coalition had previously promised the nation a public plebiscite during its election campaign and sees it as the only democratic way to move forward.

While Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull personally supports marriage equality, he reiterated that it was his party’s view to let every Australian have a say in the matter.

“There is no question that it’s not the traditional way of resolving matters like this in Australia,” he told Radio Tasmania. “It was a view taken by the Coalition Party room before I was Prime Minister—nonetheless, it’s a view that we’re committed to and it is thoroughly democratic.”

“I can understand it is frustrating for those people who want to get on with it,” he continued, “but it will be a thoroughly democratic process.”